The Blindfolded Roller Coaster

Boy and girl on a roller coaster Imagine riding a rollercoaster with no concept of what a rollercoaster is.

If you don’t know you’re on a 2-minute, relatively safe ride, every twist and turn is terrifying. It’s all so real. It feels dangerous; your safety and security appear to be at stake. You know nothing about what’s happening or what’s going to happen.

There’s nothing solid to look toward. Nothing predictable. You’re just holding on for dear life, hoping it slows down soon so you can feel better.

This is what life feels like when we don’t know how our experience works.

When it looks as if you are your experience, you’re thrown around with it. What other option is there? If there is no “experience”, there’s just “life”. If there is no “ride”, it feels like there is just life happening to you.

Life is a rollercoaster in this way. We have no control over what’s coming our way and there really are surprised around every corner. But look at the experience of riding a rollercoaster when you know it’s a rollercoaster.

The same ups and downs are something you stand on line and pay good money for. You are excited for that terrifying experience because you know it’s safe. There’s a safety bigger than the moment to moment emotions.

This is what it feels more like when we know how our experience works.

(This is a picture of Willow and Miller, riding mostly blind.)

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